By TRACY JOHNSON, P-I REPORTER

Published 10:00 pm, Monday, January 28, 2008

Longtime strip-club operator Frank Colacurcio Sr. pleaded guilty Monday to charges that he made illegal campaign contributions to three Seattle City Council candidates in the 2003 "Strippergate" scandal.

The 90-year-old man's plea deal with King County prosecutors mirrored that of his son, Frank Colacurcio Jr., an owner of Rick's strip club on Lake City Way. The 46-year-old man pleaded guilty last week to two felonies and a gross misdemeanor.

Both men were fined $10,000 but avoided jail time, and they have reached a civil settlement with the city's Ethics and Elections Commission to pay $55,000.

The elder Colacurcio, who headed a strip-club empire for years and served prison time decades ago for tax evasion and racketeering, now suffers from major health problems, wears Velcro shoes and has trouble hearing.

He had little to say about his case.

"It's all been said," he said as he left the courtroom. "It's all over with."

The Colacurcios and two others were accused of getting around campaign contribution limits by having friends, relatives and others to give money to three City Council candidates in 2003, then secretly paying them back.

Prosecutors said the "political money laundering" was an effort by the Colacurcios to get approval of a parking-lot expansion at Rick's.

Gil Conte, an associate of the Colacurcios and a former lounge singer, has entered a modified guilty plea to conspiracy charges. Prosecutors dismissed their case against Marsha Furfaro, manager of a booking agency for club dancers.